NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Monday dismissed a plea seeking a copy of the CBI's 2013 decision to close preliminary enquiry into alleged amassing of disproportionate assets by late former UP CM Mulayam Singh Yadav and his family members Akhilesh Yadav and Prateek Yadav.
A bench of Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud and Justices P S Narasimha and J B Pardiwala rejected an application filed by Vishwanath Chaturvedi, saying it can't look into the matter after so many years.
Senior advocate Kapil Sibal, appearing for the Yadav family, submitted that the CBI had found nothing and closed the enquiry in 2013.
Advocate Shekhar G Devasa, appearing for Chaturvedi, submitted it was on the petitioner's plea that the court had ordered enquiry. He had sought a copy of the closure report which was declined. An RTI plea filed with the Central Vigilance Commission stated that the CBI had filed no such closure report, he claimed.
The top court, however, said the enquiry was closed in 2013 and the application for a copy was filed in 2019.
"In pursuance of the judgements of this court dated 1 March 2007 and 13 December 2012, the Central Bureau of Investigation closed the enquiry on 7 August 2013 and submitted a report to the Central Vigilance Commission on 8 October 2013. The Miscellaneous Application has been filed merely six years thereafter in 2019. There is no merit in the Miscellaneous Application which is accordingly dismissed," the bench said in its order.
Chaturvedi said he has not got the copy of the closure report till date and it is mandatory to give the closure report to the petitioner as per 173 (2) and sec 157 (2) of the Criminal Procedure Code.
In 2019, the CBI has informed the court that it had closed the enquiry against Samajwadi Party patriarch Mulayam Singh Yadav, his son Akhilesh Yadav and other son Prateek due to lack of sufficient evidence.
After conducting further enquiry in “fair, impartial and professional manner”, the CBI has independently taken a decision on August 7, 2013 to close its probe, it had said.
“Since no prima facie evidence of commission of cognisable evidence against the suspects was found during enquiry, hence the preliminary enquiry was not converted into a criminal case or FIR and as such no further enquiry was conducted after August 7, 2013,” it had further said.
Chaturvedi had contended that the CBI has "utterly" failed to intimate the status of the case nor did it inform about the filing of any final report either before the jurisdictional magistrate or the apex court in view of the directions issued in two judgments of March 01, 2007 and December 13, 2012 respectively.
In December 2012, the court had directed CBI to go ahead with the probe against the then SP Chief and his then Chief Minister son, while dropping investigation against Dimple Yadav, wife of Akhilesh.
